


coward

by ghostscribe



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), ポケモンマスターズ | Pokemon Masters
Genre: Arguing, Gen, Light Angst, Pokemon Battles, legit idk what other tags to use on this sorry, tiny mention of suicidal urges blink and you'll miss it, um
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostscribe/pseuds/ghostscribe
Summary: "You have to make your Pokémon run from my attacks to feel safe, don't you?"Offense graces Red's expression, and Lear just smirks."That's cowardly. Just like you, huh?"
Relationships: anything i write should be assumed nameless though lmao, technically nameless but that's not the focus so i won't tag it proper
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94





	coward

It's cold.

He prefers the glaciers of Pasio, both for the weather and the fact that hardly anyone ever comes out this way. It's a nice enough place to train, recognizable, albeit in some bitterly familiar way. It's a climate he wouldn't have become so accustomed to if he hadn't won and won and _won_ and that piece of resentment just... echoes, quietly, but it does.

"Again."

Charizard practices his attack again, Flame Thrower, of course, upon Red's request. Things start to feel fuzzy.

He remembers training like this, just... repetition, over and over and over, and then the next day they practice something wildly _else._ It's a pattern between the expected and the unanticipated, and that's exactly what battles are, truly. Either he is or isn't prepared, but, but he always _wins_ and a piece of him is exhausted, but a larger piece of him can pull himself out of the involuntary spiral of melancholy he's falling into. A part of him knows he'll fly back to Centra City, back to the hotel, back to _Green,_ and god, that makes all of this worth it and that makes this all _now_ again. That pulls him off the summit in his memories.

"You there!"

A voice. So loud. So confident. So _familiar_ in a way he doesn't want to hear.

Red turns to the source of the yell, and he only recognizes the man in passing, but he does recall something about _prince_ and that's really even more than he needs to know. The way he calls out, that stance, the grimace on his face and the no-doubt glaring eyes behind his visor (a glare Red can't see, but he can feel it, oh, he can feel it), it's just like, like -

"So," the Prince takes a theatrical step forward, "you finally decided to show yourself, did you? I've been waiting for you, _World Champion."_

The title bites into Red's skin, makes his ears ring. He hates it. _Hates_ it. Hates it with a fucking passion.

Red just nods a little, keeps his eyes fixed on the Prince for barely a second before _he's staring back_ rings in his mind and he looks to the side. He's only recently visited Unova with Green, only as of last year, but it's a Unovan Pokémon, ground and... dark? He can't quite recall the name, though. It looks formidable enough.

"You _do_ realize I specifically invited you six months ago, don't you?" Oh, that's - that's a very bitter voice, he's used to the confidence but _aggression_ makes Red's head spin. "I have been oh so _very_ patiently awaiting your arrival, and you keep me up wondering when you'll finally show. Don't you know it's rude to keep a Prince waiting? Not to mention you show up wearing _that,_ of all things."

That last comment takes him a bit off-guard, because honest to god sometimes Red forgets he has a tangible, visible body. He quickly glances the Prince up and down, thinks to himself _like you're one to talk,_ but he opts to just lower the brim of his hat, reach for a pokéball, cut the small talk and cut to the chase already.

The Prince grins at him, smug, confident once more, oscillating between moods like a pendulum on overdrive. "Oh, not one for small talk? You're even quieter than I remember, Champion."

_What?_

"But if it's a defeat you're looking for, child, it's a defeat you shall receive, at the hands of Prince Lear Pasio!" He waves his arm, his Pokémon roars, he gives this perfectly timed smirk and Red just... feels nothing. It feels like Mt Silver again.

It's cold. Red wants to go home.

"Allow me to make one condition, if you would, as neither of us are with our proper tournament teams today," and Red dares to look at him. "Just for my own entertainment, we'll play by Indigo Law. I'd like to see if you're still all you were cracked up to be."

_Still_... he must have come to Mt Silver, then, Red doesn't remember him for the life of -

"You _do_ remember me, don't you?" Red looks away, and back, avoiding an answer, but Lear seems to take that as a _no_ and even behind the visor Red feels him staring daggers through the air. "Hmph. You won't forget me this time, you fool."

Red only nods. He couldn't speak if he tried (fool). It isn't _safe_ to speak to someone like this _(fool)_.

"Krookodile, ready yourself." Krookodile, then, the Unovan Pokémon roars once more, bares its fangs. Ground/Dark. Not bad, but not great.

Nothing is ever that bad, never that great. It's never much of anything.

Red reaches for a pokéball and he already knows it'll be a 4-0 win at worst.

He's already tired of this.

"Earthquake!"

Red tosses out Blastoise. If Lear challenged him before, he's preparing his first attack to hit Pikachu, but Red is adaptable, unpredictable, and Lear is just another challenger who's come to the top of the world only to fall from the summit that Red wishes he could fucking jump from and -

_Blizzard._ No time for reminiscing. No time for melancholy. No time for fool or jumping or any of that. No time for any of it.

* * *

And there's no time for Lear, either, and his plans are already all out of whack.

Already Lear is _furious_ that this child thinks he's fucking clever, that he thinks it'd be funny leading with something else than his usual rat, trying to throw Lear off from the first second of the match, but if he thinks - oh, if he even _dreams_ for a single moment that he'll win, he's wrong, dead wrong, Red is so fucking _wrong_. Some bratty child from the middle of nowhere isn't going to best Lear, that's certain.

He was - he _is_ royalty. He is royal. He has to be.

The child whistles, some kind of taunt, instead of just calling his moves like a normal human, and Lear shivers at the sheer cold but he's certain the boy didn't notice. He's _certain._ Lear is royal and holy and if nothing else he is an actor. He can keep his composure.

Maybe.

"Stealth Rock." From the looks of it, Earthquake did a notable amount of damage to the Blastoise, but still not enough, not yet, but when this brat sends that stupid faux-dragon onto the field now, oh, he'll be in for a surprise. "Then return."

Red calls for some other move. Whatever it is collides with Krookodile before he can be recalled, and oh, oh no, that's - that's too much damage for only two moves, this stupid _brat_ is trying to keep the upper hand but Lear won't have it, he can't have it, he _won't._

"Stubborn, aren't you?" Lear calls, as if he's winning, and he _is,_ maybe not yet but he will, he _must,_ he is royal, he is _perfect._ "Let's see how you handle this!"

He tosses Sigilyph onto the field. Red leaves Blastoise out. Excellent.

"Energy Ball." Ah, but Lear's voice is too soft now, suddenly uneasy in the presence of the child who literally made him lose his luster, the one who tore his crown off his head and drug it through the mud without so much as dignifying him with even a word. Foolish fucking -

Red whistles again, stupid child, just - just _whistling,_ as if this is supposed to be light-hearted, fun, as if this is just a _game._ A tsunami of water collides with his Sigilyph but the Blastoise on the other side of the glacier seems to be hurt by Sigilyph, _noticeably_ hurt, and Lear feels his heart swell with excitement.

"Hah! You weren't expecting that, were you? How foolish!" He swears, Lear _swears,_ he sees Red roll his eyes through the snow, and Lear writhes inside. "You can thank me for beating you later! I'll show you what _true_ power looks like!"

...Red's lips may have moved but Lear can't - he can't quite tell. If this boy can talk and just refuses to honor Lear with a single word, he's going to fucking scream.

Red recalls Blastoise, sends out Pikachu, there's scrapes on the rat already from the stones surrounding the field but Pikachu looks more or less unfazed. There's a sudden glimmer of _something_ coming from his own Sigilyph, a gentle pulse of psychic energy, and while Lear knows it's foolish he wonders if that's something like recognition.

Red whistles. Quiet fool.

"Psyshock!" Because maybe that'll do it, maybe that'll be enough, but Sigilyph _misses_ \- no, no, Pikachu _dodges,_ that rat breaks the rules and runs and hides from the move, and suddenly the air is electrified, a bolt of lightning slices out of the blizzard and strikes Lear's Pokémon and she's down in a single hit.

"You - _You -_!" No, no, _no,_ "You _fool!_ Do you think that can stop me?!"

Red seems to open his mouth, almost as if to _finally_ break his vow of silence, but then he covers it and whistles something. Pikachu chatters back to him but nothing else happens.

"...hmph. You're wasting my time. You don't even have anything worth saying, do you?" Lear feels something in the atmosphere sink when he says that.

It... it's nothing. Krookodile comes onto the field. "Krookodile, Earthquake."

And Pikachu fucking dodges the move again. _Again._ The glacier trembles and the blizzard rages on but Pikachu _dodges_ and there's some other whistle and an Iron Tail collides with his ace Pokémon.

_"Again,_ Krookodile."

Again, and Pikachu _still fucking dodges and it's the same fucking thing -_

_"Again!!"_

Red recalls Pikachu - or, rather, he waves the rat onto his shoulder, then throws out another Pokémon. It's a Venusaur, stupid plant, it shouldn't stand a chance in this weather but he recalls faintly the confusion from two years ago, from their first battle, where Venusaur hardly shivered at the cold, and Lear wonders, lamely, if Red is a Champion or simply an enigma.

* * *

And Red wonders too, actually, but more so he wonders if he's a Champion or just a kid who got too far too fast and did too much too well and if he should've called it quits years ago. The blizzard leaves familiar bites on his cheeks and Red just wants to melt into the snow, freeze over, he wants to run and hide, he wants to fly back to Green and into his arms, wants to fly home and pull carrots with his mother from their garden, just, just, he wants to be anywhere but here and anything but himself.

_Giga Drain._

"Stone Edge!"

Because Red knows that this so-called Prince wouldn't have even batted an eye at him if he hadn't lost to him before, apparently, and again Red doesn't even recall the battle that seems to have left scars on his ego. Too many people have come to Mt Silver, too many people have lost, too many victories Red doesn't deserve, too much recognition. Everything is always too much. He wants to go back to the days where it was just him, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu, just camping in Viridian Forest and roasting dinner for themselves over a small fire. He wants things to be simple. He wants them to be soft, safe.

Krookodile faints, though, and Lear shouts in frustration, and nothing is soft, and nothing is safe.

"Do you - Just who do you think you _are,_ you brat?!" Lear shouts, and maybe it's just teenage hormones, or maybe Red has bottled himself up for too long, but he's actually starting to get mad. "Do you think you're special just because you're a prodigy?! Do you think the world will bow to some brat from the middle of nowhere?! You are _nothing_ but a _fool!_ You're just a _peasant!"_

Of course he's nothing. He's just a brat from the middle of nowhere.

...why does hearing that hurt so much, then?

"Cofagrigus, Nasty Plot!"

Fine, _fine,_ and Red sends out Snorlax, immune to ghost types. Sometimes he tries to throw the match, sometimes he tries to take it easy on his challengers. Right now, he wants nothing more than Lear to fall and shut the hell up.

_Snore._ The second that thing is asleep, it's over.

"Will-O-Wisp, _now."_ Burnt, but fine, Snorlax is bulky and he can handle it. Red whistles for _Rest_ and Snorlax is out cold.

"You - you're just stalling now, aren't you?!" Lear stamps his foot, and Red _glares._ "Fine, come back! Staraptor, Close Combat!"

That does a decent amount of damage, but Red lets Snorlax take it, then she's back in her ball. He just waves Pikachu on, and another _Thunder_ comes without Red even commanding it. Pikachu knows what he's doing. Staraptor is nearly down.

"You - foolishness! _Foolishness!"_ The Blizzard is letting up. Red feels warm. "Who do you think you are?! You are _nothing!"_

Red is nothing, so he says nothing, only whistling for Pikachu to back over. He sends Blastoise out again. He lowers the brim of his hat. He just wants to hide his face. He wants to feel numb.

Lear's voice rings in his ears and he wants to drown it out with wind and ice.

_Blizzard._

"Don't you _dare!"_

Magma bubbles in Red's chest and he speaks in a voice that doesn't feel like his own.

_(Don't what?)_

* * *

And Lear's heart _drops._

He - he's using sign language. It must be a Kantonian dialect, Lear can't recognize the signs, but... can he - can he actually _not_ talk? Was he hurt? Is he -

No, no, no, _no,_ now's not the time for pity. Red is a brat. He's a useless child from some hick town on the outskirts of some filthy region, he is a _peasant_ and Lear is a Prince. He will _not_ falter.

"...don't go easy on me." Lear's voice is softer, but only for that line. He bites back his empathy, chokes out the weakness. "Why don't you just speak? This is pathetic. A Champion should present themselves better than you do!"

Red is _shaking._ He looks _furious_. Lear sees a child behind that fire and he forces himself to burn up too.

"Double Edge!" He knows Staraptor will faint anyway, and he does, but so does Blastoise. "See? You're less than perfect! You are _nothing!"_

Red looks shocked for only a moment, then just... he just looks at Lear with some kind of recognition. The air is thick. Nothing is said and nothing is done and Lear feels like his feet are dragging through mud as he carries on.

"Flygon, let's go." Red sends out Venusaur again. "Arial Ace."

Red whistles and Venusaur actually dodges _some_ of the attack, that should've hurt more and again Lear is just - just fucking _mad,_ he can't believe this child has the gall to run from these hits. Venusaur hits Flygon with a wave of toxic sludge and the dragon is poisoned.

"Again!" Red whistles for something, Lear is never sure. "You have to make your Pokémon _run_ from my attacks to feel safe, don't you?"

Offense graces Red's expression, and Lear just smirks.

"That's cowardly. Just like you, huh?"

* * *

And Red, of course, is one to run. Of _course_ he runs. He's been running from cameras andgangsters and things off the coast of Cinnabar Island that he can't understand, he's been running from his own broken dreams and his own nightmares and his own heart and mind and soul because he just - he doesn't want this, doesn't want to _be_ this, doesn't want to be a hero or a champion or _known,_ he just wants to be _Red_ and nothing, nothing, nothing _more,_ this Champion game is getting old and he just wants to _quit -_

"Coward."

Red is _burning._ His throat is heavy, threatening to force tears to his eyes.

_I know,_ only mouthed out, no words actually come. They never do. Coward. Coward and a fool. He knows. He's a fucking coward. Can't even talk right, can he?

Red's whistle this time is louder, sharper, a call for Solar Beam, and it takes Flygon's health down a considerable amount. Lear calls for something that Red can't hear over the ringing in his ears and Venusaur very nearly faints.

He'll bait him. He switches in for Espeon, Lear switches for Cofagrigus, everything is blurring together in a mix of _I don't want to win anymore_ and _I want to beat you into the fucking ground_ and even a simple, childish, cowardly _I wanna go home._

Cofagrigus uses Shadow Ball and Espeon blocks it, Lear calls _again!_ in that stupid obnoxious voice and Red switches for Snorlax before the attack comes and it does nothing to Snorlax. Predictable. Lear uses the same move over and over until he gets frustrated. This should be easier. It _would_ be if Red wasn't on the verge of crumbling.

"We're back to this, then?" Lear calls. Red just rolls his eyes. "Stop playing games with me. Do something."

Red switches in for Pikachu and whistles for _Surf,_ because he knows that should be startling enough to confuse Lear. It does.

...if he didn't know Pikachu can use Surf, he really must've tanked their last encounter.

"What in the world?!"

* * *

And Lear _doesn't_ expect it, he doesn't, but he's not about to let that throw him off. "Shadow Ball!"

_Finally_ that stupid rat takes the hit, but one more Thunder knocks his Cofagrigus down. Lear _yells_ and Red _flinches._

"You idiot! _Idiot!"_

Red... Red backs up. His hands are braced in front of him as Lear himself will lash out. Coward.

"Coward," Lear murmurs barely above a whisper, but he's looking right at Red, and he presumes the boy can read lips because rage builds under this apparent fear.

"Flygon, Earth - " and before he can call for Earthquake Red switches _again,_ back to Venusaur and a Solar Beam. His Pokémon are getting slowly scraped up by the Stealth Rock that Lear set up but Lear's own team is hurt by the Blizzard. As to how Red's team is immune, Lear will never know. Cheating, maybe.

Either way, somehow, Venusaur survives the attack.

And somehow, Flygon doesn't.

"...do you think you're special, Red?" Saying his name out loud is weird. It feels wrong on his tongue.

Red shakes his head. Defiance, or maybe resignation.

"...stupid kid."

Lear wants to go down fighting, so he sends Staraptor out and, and he _knows_ he'll lose but he's trying, okay? He's _trying._ "Brave Bird. Don't hold back."

And both Pokémon are unconscious. Lear is doing much, much better than last time, but it's still not enough. _He_ isn't enough. He's the real fool here.

Heat wells around his eyes and his visor is fogging up.

"You really just want to make me mad, don't you?!" And now Lear is just talking, not even thinking his thoughts before they come spilling out of his mouth. "Do you want to make me suffer?! Do you think you're better than everyone else?! I don't _care_ if they call you a prodigy, you're just a stupid child! Your team would be better off with someone more competent than you, you know!" Red signs something that Lear can't understand and can't even see through the blizzard anyway. The mist in his eyes builds and he doesn't _care_ what this brat has to say. "I'm _right!_ I'm _always_ right! _You_ just need to learn your place!"

Red sends out Charizard. This is it. This is _it._

"Salamence, Double Edge!" The recoil is going to be a lot, but he doesn't care. He needs to go down fighting. "Ruin him! Show them their place!"

He swears he could hear Red make some kind of sound over the Blizzard.

Red taps the shimmering stone on his bracelet, something Lear didn't even notice. _Mega Evolution,_ yeah, what a cheap tactic.

...it is magnificent to watch, though. Seeing Charizard rise up above everything else, watching the other side of the field get engulfed in an iridescent light, suddenly and so intensely that Lear has to shut his eyes even with his visor, it, it's overwhelming and it's almost frustrating to see it happen right in front of him, it's a taunt, an _insult._ He's _mocking_ him.

"You _cheater!"_

Double Edge finally collides against Charizard, and Charizard lashes back out with a row of bellowing flames.

"You stupid, useless, _pathetic_ excuse for a trainer!!"

Lear shouts. He's not sure if he's shouting at Red or himself anymore.

"Salamence," and no, his voice didn't crack, "Dragon Pulse!"

Red whistles. Lear wants to explode.

"Don't you _dare_ hold back, Salamence! Do you want to lose?!" And then he looks to Red, and for some reason he asks, "Do _you_ want to win, you stupid child?! Do you think you're worthy?! You are _nothing,_ don't you know that?!"

No answer.

"You're a coward!"

"I don't care!"

Red speaks. Red _screams._

* * *

And Red means it.

The mega ring is burning into his wrist. Whenever he mega evolves one of his Pokémon it's usually warm, but right now it's scorching hot and he's almost _sure_ his wrist is going to need to be treated for burns at this rate. The whistle Red makes is just one that means _fight_ and more or less Charizard just, just unleashes as much dragon-induced rage as he can, everything is hot and bright and everything fucking _hurts_ and Red just wants Lear to go away and he wants _everything_ to go away because he knows he's stupid and a coward and unfit for anything -

The Pokémon collide, and it sounds like the world is ending. It may as well end.

God, Red wants everything to just _end._

Shockwaves of pain shoot through him, from his wrist to his arm to his chest, the bond between a Pokémon and its trainer so strong and so agonizing that Red feels Salamence's attack in first person, and it seems to be something Lear could never understand. A part of Red pities him and another part of him is just so, so _tired_ of him, of this, of, of _everything_ , he knows he's just a fool and just a coward, he didn't need the reminder, he just needs this pain to know he's worth _something_ because apparently all he can do right is battle and, and, and -

The pain is too much to focus on anything else. He presses the key stone into his palm and lets it scorch him.

The dust around them clears, the Blizzard has ended, everything is just over. Salamence is battered and unconscious.

Red won. He won as easily as he knew he would, 4-0, in his favor. He doesn't feel anything when he wins anymore. All he feels are _coward_ and _fool_ and insults racing through his head and he wants to cry.

Because Lear is right.

Lear looks down at his Pokémon, baffled. He looks up at Charizard, still in his mega form. He looks at Red. Red can't look at him.

"You - you idiot," softly, deciding to keep his voice down, as if to _mock_ him. "That's a cheap tactic. Do you think you really deserved to win?"

No.

"Do you deserve to be called a Champion? Do you even _appreciate_ it?! So many others would lie and cheat and _kill_ to be who you are, and you can't even bare to smile when you win?! Are you even happy?!"

* * *

And Lear hears Red speak in a squeak like a Pikachu, but the voice does come.

"No."

_No,_ as if Red is in immense agony when he speaks.

"...no?"

Nothing is said.

And then Red lets out the quietest _sob._

Red whistles for Charizard, the dragon comes and Red hops on his back and flies away. Lear watches the child go, leaving him with a pile of mixed emotions in his stomach.

And Lear feels something in his chest shatter.

**Author's Note:**

> "oh boy it's valentines what do you have for us today ghostscribe?" i have a royal twink and an unwilling champion crying on a glacier   
> honest to god i have been wanting to write smth like this for Red vs Lear for awhile. i don't think this is quite what i wanted to write, but this is... what yall get, i suppose. more or less the tl;dr is Lear has an inferiority complex and Red already kinda hates himself so when you put them in the same place for more than 15 seconds this happens  
> also, i'm imagining Red to be more like... 16 yrs old for this drabble? Lear would be closer to maybe 20 or so. lowkey i just wanted to make Red a bit of an angstier teen, and he seems younger in Pokemon Masters anyway, so here we are lol   
> i might write some more Lear stuff too bc just. i like this angry boy okay. my taste in pokemon characters is protags or twinks with dumb hair. ~~yeah i'm looking at you too Green~~  
>  anyway im behind on hw so uhhh. happy valentines day sorry this isn't a ship ;u; also sorry for the pov switching a lot, i just needed to explore Lear's pov a bit too :0


End file.
